1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to assembly tables for assembling conductor boards, and more particularly it concerns a novel arrangement whereby integrated circuits to be inserted on the boards are fed into trays in preassigned positions from a rotatable magazine and conveyed automatically to an assembly station where they may be picked up in preassigned positions with integrated circuit assembly tongs and inserted in preassigned locations in the conductor board to be assembled.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In equipping conductor boards with components, use is currently made of assembly tables at which conductor boards to be assembled may be mounted at an assembly station on the tables. An operator inserts the components in question in the conductor boards in their desired position. To simplify the insertion operation, components are placed in trays with similar components arranged in the same tray. The trays may be conveyed past the assembly station in definite sequence, so that the operator at any given time picks up the desired number of components contained in the tray directly adjacent to the station. When equipping the conductor board with integrated circuits, however, major problems have been encountered. Since integrated circuits possess a plurality of connection pins or tabs, often spaced apart only by a distance determined by the minimum grid interval, when certain of the trays were loaded with several integrated circuits, the integrated circuits were very apt to tangle. The operator was thus obliged first to separate the required integrated circuit manually from the others, a time-consuming operation. Moreover, the entire operation is time-consuming. Since the integrated circuits must be inserted in the conductor board with special integrated circuit assembly tongs, the selected integrated circuit must also be placed in the tongs manually and in preassigned position. A further disadvantage is that during the operation the integrated circuit may become damaged. In detaching one integrated circuit from the other integrated circuits in a tray and placing it in the assembly tongs, inevitably the operator, even with the utmost care, will touch the connection pins. Since the operator's person often will hold a high static charge, the integrated circuit may be ruined upon such contact with the connection pins, and the fact will not be ascertainable until final inspection of the assembled conductor board, with a resulting high rate of rejects.
These problems are currently dealt with by equipping the assembly table with a rotatable magazine in which the integrated circuits are contained in ordered sequence. Thus the operator using the integrated circuit assembly tongs can pick the desired integrated circuit directly out of the magazine. A disadvantage, however, is that the rotatable magazine, which may hold numerous different integrated circuits, must be arranged on the assembly table so that the operator must reach across with the assembly tongs and carry back each integrated circuit a considerable distance. This is an exacting task and requires very close attention on the operator's part. With such an arrangement, furthermore, automatic assembly is not possible.